Encrypting and storing data from a financial prospectus

ABSTRACT

A first portion of data is selected. The first portion of data is capable of being converted from a human-readable format to an electronically readable format. The first portion of data is capable of being stored in an optical bar code. A printed publication includes the first portion of data in the human-readable format. The first portion of data is encrypted. The first portion of data is stored on the optical bar code. The optical bar code is incorporated into the printed publication. The first portion of data is read from the optical bar code using a bar code scanner without removing the optical bar code from the printed publication.

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/021,591, filed Jan. 29, 2008 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,640,203;which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/843,093,filed Apr. 26, 2001 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,349,873) each of which ishereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to automation processes for accessing financialprospectus data. More particularly, this invention relates to methodsand systems for enabling users of prospectuses to easily access thefinancial information contained therein.

A prospectus is a written document providing information concerning anoffering of financial securities. A prospectus contains narrativeinformation on, for instance, the type and classification of security,the type of business associated with a security, potential risk factors,use of proceeds, and security voting rights. A prospectus may alsoinclude both consolidated and detailed financial information on theassociated business and the security itself. Information in the form ofdata in the prospectus may, for instance, include underwritercompensation, dilution data, operations data, summary of accountingpolicies, inventories, property and equipment, leases and other assets,short-term borrowing and long-term debt, employee benefit plans,management salaries, income taxes and authorization of common andpreferred stock. The amount of data contained in a prospectus may beextensive.

Prospectuses are available in printed form, typically as a booklet,suitable for distribution to potential purchasers of securities. If theprospectus is associated with a federally-regulated security, it has tobe submitted to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) where it isentered into their Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and RetrievalSystem (EDGAR). The prospectus information is then accessible by thegeneral public over the SEC-maintained database. The files in EDGAR arein either plain text or Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) form.Unofficial Portable Document Format (PDF) files may also be submitted tothe SEC. All of these file types are in a human-readable form but not inelectronically readable form. Further, the information and datacontained in financial prospectuses may be in a variety of formats andarrangements which may make the information and data difficult to read,analyze and interpret.

Therefore, the information and data presented in prospectuses may bedifficult to manage because of its volume, form, format and arrangement.Thus, it is desirable to provide methods and systems for prospectus datamanagement. Such methods would facilitate the provision of data in amanner that is electronically accessible and more easily usable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

These and other objects of the invention are accomplished with theprinciple of the present invention by providing methods and systems forprospectus data management.

In accordance with the invention, these methods and systems provideprospectus data management by the use of electronically readable mediaincorporated into (e.g., encapsulated on the cover) a printed prospectuswhere the media stores important financial information and data. Theprospectus information is therefore available in both a human-readableand electronically readable format. The electronically readable mediamay be in the form of, for instance, bar codes, magnetic strips orembedded chips. The data can be read from the prospectus using asuitable device. Multiple electronically readable media types may beprovided for storage of different data, i.e. salaries, assets, etc. Theprospectus data that is electronically readable may be in a summaryform. The data may also be in a standardized form. Additionally, theelectronically readable information and data may be in an encrypted formwhere decryption software is subsequently needed to read data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent upon reading the following detailed description and uponreference to the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a depiction in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention showing the front cover of a printed prospectus with anelectronically readable media encapsulated on it;

FIG. 2 is a depiction of a table in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention where the data table shown could be of a typefound in a securities' prospectus; and

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the process in accordance with one embodimentof the present invention in which the prospectus electronically readablemedia is accessed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

An illustrative depiction of a system 10 in accordance with certainembodiments of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1. The prospectusmay be presented to a user in a conventional, human-readable, printedform 11. Typically, the printed matter is in a booklet form.Electronically readable media 12 may be encapsulated on the cover 13 ofthe printed prospectus. The electronically readable media may be opticalbar codes, magnetic strips, embedded computer chips or any othersuitable readable electronic data storage media. There may be multipleelectronically readable media 12 types encapsulated on the prospectuscover containing different categories of data such as salary, assets,underwriter information, etc. The information contained in theelectronically readable media may be read using a suitable device 14 bya user. For example, device 14 may be a bar code scanner, smart cardscanner, or any other suitable device connected to a personal, portable,or hand-held computer, or any other suitable device.

The information contained in the electronically readable media 12 maycontain voluminous data tables such as those shown in FIG. 2. Datatables 20 may include information such as the previous performance ofsecurities for the business, borrowing information, information on thesecurity itself, and any other prospectus data as is well known in theart.

One embodiment of a process 30 for using system 10 is shown in FIG. 3.As illustrated, at step 31, specific information and data from theprospectus may be reviewed and chosen for inclusion in theelectronically readable media. The data chosen may be included in asummarized form—that is, not all prospectus data but only selectedportions may be chosen for inclusion in the electronically readablemedia.

The data may be stored in a standardized format to facilitate ease ofdata reading, and subsequent interpretation and analysis. In particular,the use of standardized data forms may allow subsequent mathematicalmanipulation of financial data in a more efficient manner. For instance,the data may be contained in a standardized format so that, when read,it may be in an appropriate input form to a database where mathematicalalgorithms may subsequently be applied. The process of arrangement ofthe data in a standardized form is shown at step 32.

At step 33, the information and data may be converted to an encryptedform in one embodiment using any of a wide variety of mathematicalencryption methods as known in the art. The encrypted data may then bestored in the electronically readable media 12.

At step 34, the information and data may be read from the electronicallyreadable media 12 using a suitable device. For instance, a bar code maybe read by an optical scanner. The prospectus information and data maybe transferred to and stored on a variety of suitable computer systems,including, but not limited to, personal computers. If data had beenencrypted, decryption software installed on a personal computer, orother suitable device, may be needed to convert information to adecrypted form as illustrated by step 35. Encryption of the informationand data may be used, for instance, to restrict reading of data to userswho had purchased the decryption software.

Finally, the data may be processed on the computer to aid the user inevaluating the subject of the prospectus, as shown at step 36. Thisprocessing may include generating graphs, spreadsheet tables, or anyother suitable data processing technique as known in the art.

Thus, it is apparent that it has been provided, in accordance with theinvention, a prospectus data management system that fully satisfies theobjects, aims and advantages set forth above. While the invention hasbeen described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, it isevident that many alternatives, modifications and variations as fallwithin the spirit of the appended claims exist.

1. A method, comprising: selecting a first portion of data, the firstportion of data being capable of being converted from a human-readableformat to an electronically readable format, and being capable of beingstored on an embedded memory chip, wherein a printed financialprospectus comprises the first portion of data in the human-readableformat; encrypting the first portion of data; storing the encryptedfirst portion of data on the embedded memory chip; incorporating theembedded memory chip into the printed financial prospectus; and readingthe encrypted first portion of data from the embedded memory chip usinga smart card reader without removing the embedded memory chip from theprinted financial prospectus.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: after reading the encrypted first portion of data,decrypting the encrypted first portion of data.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein storing the encrypted first portion of data comprises:storing the encrypted first portion of data on the embedded memory chipin a summary format.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein storing theencrypted first portion of data comprises: storing the encrypted firstportion of data on the embedded memory chip in a standardized format. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein: the printed financial prospectuscomprises two or more of the following plurality of data types: securityinformation, classification information, consolidated financialinformation, inventory information, dilution data, asset information,debt information, past performance information, management salaryinformation, tax information, underwriter compensation information, andoperations data; and the first portion of data comprises a first one ofthe plurality of data types.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinincorporating the embedded memory chip into the printed financialprospectus comprises: encapsulating the embedded memory chip on a coverof the printed financial prospectus.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinincorporating the embedded memory chip into the printed financialprospectus comprises: affixing the embedded memory chip to the printedfinancial prospectus.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:selecting a second portion of data, wherein the printed financialprospectus comprises the second portion of data; storing the secondportion of data on an electronically readable medium; and incorporatingthe electronically readable medium into the printed financialprospectus.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein: the first portion of datacomprises a first category of information associated with the printedfinancial prospectus; and the second portion of data comprises a secondcategory of information associated with the printed financialprospectus, wherein the first category of information is different fromthe second category of information.
 10. The method of claim 8, furthercomprising: reading the second portion of data from the electronicallyreadable medium using a device without removing the electronicallyreadable medium from the printed financial prospectus.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the electronically readable medium comprises theembedded memory chip.
 12. The method of claim 10, wherein theelectronically readable medium comprises a computer chip and the deviceis connected to a computer.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein theelectronically readable medium comprises a second embedded memory chipand the device comprises the smart card reader.
 14. A method,comprising: receiving a printed financial prospectus, the printedfinancial prospectus comprising: a first portion of data in ahuman-readable format, the first portion of data being capable of beingconverted from the human-readable format to an electronically readableformat, and being capable of being stored on an embedded memory chip;and the embedded memory chip, wherein the embedded memory chip isincorporated into the printed financial prospectus; encrypting the firstportion of data; storing the encrypted first portion of data on theembedded memory chip; and reading the encrypted first portion of datafrom the embedded memory chip using a smart card reader without removingthe embedded memory chip from the printed financial prospectus.
 15. Themethod of claim 14, further comprising: after reading the encryptedfirst portion of data, decrypting the encrypted first portion of data.16. The method of claim 14, wherein: the printed financial prospectuscomprises two or more of the following plurality of data types: securityinformation, classification information, consolidated financialinformation, inventory information, dilution data, asset information,debt information, past performance information, management salaryinformation, tax information, underwriter compensation information, andoperations data; the first portion of data comprises a first one of theplurality of data types.
 17. The method of claim 14, wherein storing theencrypted first portion of data comprises: storing the encrypted firstportion of data on the embedded memory chip in a summary format.
 18. Themethod of claim 14, wherein storing the encrypted first portion of datacomprises: storing the encrypted first portion of data on the embeddedmemory chip in a standardized format.
 19. The method of claim 14,wherein the embedded memory chip is incorporated into the printedfinancial prospectus such that the embedded memory chip is encapsulatedon a cover of the printed financial prospectus.
 20. The method of claim14, wherein the embedded memory chip is incorporated into the printedfinancial prospectus such that the embedded memory chip is affixed tothe printed financial prospectus.
 21. The method of claim 14, whereinthe printed financial prospectus further comprises: a second portion ofdata, and an electronically readable medium incorporated into theprinted financial prospectus, the electronically readable mediumconfigured to store the second portion of data.
 22. The method of claim21, further comprising: storing the second portion of data on theelectronically readable medium.
 23. The method of claim 21, wherein: thefirst portion of data comprises a first category of informationassociated with the printed financial prospectus; and the second portionof data comprises a second category of information associated with theprinted financial prospectus, wherein the first category of informationis different from the second category of information.
 24. The method ofclaim 21, further comprising: reading the second portion of data fromthe electronically readable medium using a device without removing theelectronically readable medium from the printed financial prospectus.25. The method of claim 24, wherein the electronically readable mediumcomprises a magnetic strip.
 26. The method of claim 24, wherein theelectronically readable medium comprises a computer chip and the deviceis connected to a computer.
 27. The method of claim 24, wherein theelectronically readable medium comprises a second embedded memory chipand the device comprises the smart card reader.